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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Oklahoma's latest farm and ranch news
Your Update from Ron Hays of RON for Tuesday August 28,
2007! A
service of Farm Credit of East Central Oklahoma & Midwest Farm
Shows
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-- Oklahoma's Spring Planted Crops in Good to Excellent Shape- except
for Soybeans
-- Looking back on 2007- and ahead to 2008- we spotlight Dr. Brett
Carver- leader of the OSU Wheat Improvement Team.
-- Time to Start Thinking Cotton Harvest Strategies for 2007
-- New Muscles from the Chuck Roll Could Prove to Be HUGE for the
Beef Business!
-- Grain Sorghum Selling Like Hotcakes in the International
Arena!
-- Kansas City Wheat Contract Changes Approved by Uncle Sam- Starting
with the July 2008 Contract
Howdy Neighbors! Here's your morning farm news headlines from the Director of Farm Programming for the Radio Oklahoma Network, Ron Hays. We are proud to welcome Farm Credit of East Central Oklahoma as a regular sponsor of our daily email update. Farm Credit of East Central Oklahoma has ten branch offices to serve your farm financing needs and is dedicated to being your first choice for farm credit. Check out their website for more information by clicking here! Our email this morning is also a service of Midwest Farm Shows, featuring the springtime Southern Plains Farm Show in Oklahoma City, as well as the Tulsa Farm Show held each December. Check out details of both of these exciting shows at the official website of Midwest Farm Shows by clicking here. If you have received this by someone forwarding it to you, you are welcome to subscribe and get this weekday update sent to you directly by clicking here. | |
Oklahoma's Spring Planted Crops in Good to Excellent Shape- except for Soybeans ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Soybean crop
ratings here in the state show the crop in mostly fair to good condition,
while our other spring planted crops, including cotton, corn and grain
sorghum- all are in good to excellent shape. We are now starting to
harvest this year's Oklahoma corn crop- with 12% now harvested as of the
weekend.
This week's Crop Weather update shows show improvement in the topsoil and subsoil moisture ratings- but there is actually improvement only in the areas where Erin dumped large amounts of rain on the state last weekend. The report also speaks of a surplus of hay in the state- making it tough for some folks to be able to find an outlet for hay they wish to sell. The ratings on the hay crop this year stand at 68% good to excellent for other hay(other than alfalfa) with alfalfa hay 50% good to excellent. Pasture conditions continue to be some of the better ratings in the country at 74% good to excellent. We have the latest report from USDA linked below for you to review in total. Click here for this week's Crop Weather Update from USDA's NASS | |
Looking back on 2007- and ahead to 2008- we spotlight Dr. Brett Carver- leader of the OSU Wheat Improvement Team. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ It may turn
out to be a silver lining in the dark clouds of the 2007 harvest of our
winter wheat crop across the state of Oklahoma. Dr. Brett Carver says that
we came out of the horrible harvest conditions and other production
problems with a lot of valuable information about both our tried and true
wheat varieties as well as our newer lines that have been around for just
a few years.
Dr. Carver says that we learned a lot about how various varieties handled disease, freeze and the endless rains of early June to early July. We also learned about quality characteristics of these varieties with the production challenges of 2007. He likes how OK Bullet handled the tough weather conditions in many locations- and he says that a K-State variety that did well in 2007 in several Oklahoma test plots was Fuller- an earlier wheat that has some Jagger parentage in it. You can hear our full conversation with Dr. Carver by clicking on the link below | |
Time to Start Thinking Cotton Harvest Strategies for 2007 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ COTTON HARVEST
PROSPECTS appear very promising for the 2007 crop, according to Dr.
J.C.Banks, Oklahoma State University Extension state cotton specialist:
"With a warm fall, I expect to see high (maybe a record) yields on our
Oklahoma cotton crop," he says. "I was planning to write about timing of
the final irrigation on cotton, but tropical storm Erin changed the
emphasis back to management of dryland cotton. Our cotton was starting to
stress some due to a root system that is not as deep as usual, but this
general rain is what we need to finish out the crop.
Dr. Banks adds "In some areas, I've heard reports of extremely high rainfall amounts, which probably caused enough runoff to make the field rough for harvesting, and if heavy winds accompanied the rainfall the cotton could have lodged. When large green bolls are on the plant, their weight will usually keep the cotton plant on the ground and make harvesting difficult. Many times a cotton crop that is well into fruiting will have a large fruit shed following a rain. This is not caused by the rainfall but by a decrease in carbohydrates feeding the bolls. Cotton that is fruiting heavily has a high carbohydrate demand, and any slight decrease in the supply will cause it to shed the small bolls that have formed just after blooming. Usually, rainfall is accompanied by cloudy weather and cooler temperatures. This slows the nutrient production by the plant and the plant reacts by shedding fruit. If a dryland crop has been under water stress, fruit abscission layers have already formed on some small bolls, and they may go ahead and drop following the rainfall. "In either case, if sunshine and warmer weather follows the rainfall, the plant will make up for the loss of bolls by holding onto bolls higher on the plant. The cotton should be cutting out or blooming out the top in late August. Normally, a bloom made after September 1 will not remain on the crop, so our crop has just about set it's yield at this time." | |
New Muscles from the Chuck Roll Could Prove to Be HUGE for the Beef Business! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Bucky Gwartney
of the National Cattlemen's Beef Association says there is a world of
potential in the Chuck Roll as the beef industry has identified two or
three additional muscles that will be the next wave of "value cuts" in the
next year or so.
And- there are more muscles yet to be identified from the Muscle Profiling Study that is almost a decade old. It's been an amazing transformation of bringing low value parts of the carcass into the world of muscles that are as tender as many of our steaks and upping their value dramatically. We talk with Byucky today more about this process and where we may be headed in the next few years with this ongoing expedition into the world of value of cuts. You can hear this second day of comments with Bucky Gwartney of the NCBA on our Beef Buzz for a Tuesday on the Radio Oklahoma Network- or you can click below and check it out at your convenience! Click here for today's Beef Buzz with Ron and Bucky on the road ahead for the Value Cuts! | |
Grain Sorghum Selling Like Hotcakes in the International Arena! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Sorghum is
trading at a premium to corn in European markets as the European Union,
which has an embargo on genetically modified products, suffers from
unpredictable weather and resulting crop shortages and damage. According
to U.S. Grains Council director Kurt Shultz, demand for sorghum is up.
Spain has imported 23.1 million bushels of sorghum since the marketing
year began. That's nearly 10 times that country's sorghum imports. Italy
has also begun importing U.S. sorghum - 1.5 million bushels since the
marketing year began.
Geographically, Shultz says, Spain's livestock industry is very large but lacks feed ingredients right now. The nearest grain stocks are in Hungary. But, internal transportation costs are high, making grain imports via ship more attractive. Shultz says - we should see continued demand for sorghum for the next six months as Spain will continue to import until their wheat harvest comes in next spring. Drought in eastern Europe and heavy rains in France and the United Kingdom have dramatically reduced grain production in the European Union, leaving the bloc with a record low level of grain stocks of about 2 million tons, mostly in Hungary. | |
Kansas City Wheat Contract Changes Approved by Uncle Sam- Starting with the July 2008 Contract ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Kansas
City Board of Trade announced last week that it has received approval from
the Commodity Futures Trading Commission for revisions to its hard red
winter wheat contract. "Over the course of our extensive discussions, the
[Wheat] Committee recognized that certain modifications could further
enhance the wheat futures contract," said Greg Edelblute, chairman of the
KCBOT's Wheat Contract Committee in a press release about the changes.
"The changes proposed were considered necessary given the industry's continued consolidation, the continuing trend of railroads toward larger units and the desire of commercial market participants to have deliverable grades on the contract that better reflect the quality of wheat handled in both domestic and international trade." Specific changes include: | |
Our thanks to Midwest Farm Shows and Farm Credit of East Central Oklahoma for their support of our daily Farm News Update. For your convenience, we have our sponsors' websites linked at the top of the email- check them out and let these folks know you appreciate the support of this daily email, as their sponsorship helps us keep this arriving in your inbox on a regular basis! We also invite you to check out our website at the link below to check out an archive of these daily emails, audio reports and top farm news story links from around the globe. | |
God Bless! You can reach us at the following: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
email: ron@oklahomafarmreport.com
phone: 405-473-6144
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